Great Blue Heron “Powder Down”
Hidden beneath the outer breast feathers of Great Blue Herons are patches of special down feathers. These feathers grow continuously and are never molted. When combed with the fringed, or pectinated, claw on a Great Blue Heron’s middle toe, the tips of these feathers break down into a dust the consistency of talcum powder. The heron collects some of this “powder down” and applies it to its feathers which protects them against fish slime and other oils. (BirdNote)
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Praying Mantis Well Equipped For Predation
A praying mantis is a formidable predator to all sort of insects and even an occasional hummingbird. Its forelegs are lightning fast – it takes a mantis only 50-70 milliseconds to strike out with its foremost pair of legs and grasp its prey. Look closely and you’ll see rows of spines on these legs that help a mantis grasp its prey while it eats it. However, even these adaptations don’t always guarantee a meal. Seconds after being caught the wasp (in the inset photo) quickly slipped the mantis’s grip and flew to safety.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Giant Swallowtails Resident Species In Northern New England
Those of us who live in northern New England are enjoying being able to spot the largest butterfly in North America living among us. With a 5 ½” – 7 ½” wingspread, the Giant Swallowtail’s (Papilio cresphontes) common name is very apt. This butterfly has experienced dramatic range expansion in the last decade or so, as it was formerly found only as far north as the mid-Atlantic. Now it is a regular New England inhabitant, primarily due to increasingly warm temperatures, and a common visitor to flower gardens at this time of year.
The larval stage of the Giant Swallowtail is as impressive, or more so, as the adult butterfly. Its defense mechanisms include resemblance to a bird dropping and a forked appendage that emits toxic chemicals (see https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/giant-swallowtail-caterpillar-defenses/).
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Nictitating Membranes
Sometimes referred to as a “third eyelid,” the translucent nictitating membrane visible across this juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron’s eye serves to protect it from foreign objects and to moisten the eye while at the same time allowing the bird to retain some degree of visibility. It extends from the inner corner of the eye to the outer corner, and is drawn across the eye much like a windshield wiper. The membrane is thinner and more transparent than the fleshier upper and lower eyelids and is used periodically by birds when foraging, flying, diving, feeding young, gathering nesting material, etc. In this case, the heron’s nictitating membrane was drawn across its eye seconds before it plunged beneath the surface of the water to capture a crayfish.
Birds aren’t the only animals that possess nictitating membranes – it’s relatively common in fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals (but they are rare in primates).
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Hummingbird Clearwing Moths Pollinating Flowers
The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) is a familiar sight to anyone with a garden full of beebalm, phlox, verbena or butterfly bush. Clearly named after its similar appearance and hovering behavior to hummingbirds (as well as its partially transparent wings where scales have fallen off) this day-flying moth is an excellent pollinator.
Because its tongue, or proboscis, is so long, the Hummingbird Clearwing Moth can reach nectar located at the base of tubular-shaped flowers. If you look closely at this photograph, you’ll see a tiny clump of pollen near the base of the moth’s proboscis. The structure of the Beebalm (Monarda sp.) it’s visiting is such that the stigmas (tips of the pollen-bearing male structures, or stamens) projecting from the upper lip of the flower are located where the moth will come in contact with them as it inserts its proboscis down into the flower’s nectaries. Hummingbird Clearwings carry their proboscis rolled up under their head and unfurl it when approaching a flower. (Thanks to Sally Fellows and Terry Marron for photo opportunity.)
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Blue Cohosh Seeds Ripening
This is the time of year when Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) comes into its own, brightening the forest floor with its fruit-like seeds which bear fleshy, blue seed coats. Botanically speaking, these blue structures are seeds, not fruits. A fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after the plant flowers, while seeds are formed from ovules, the structure that contains female reproductive cell of plants. Because the ovarian wall of a Blue Cohosh flower is shed during the early phases of seed development, the fruit can be considered a “naked” seed.
We think of gymnosperms (conifers, cycads, ginkos) as having naked seeds, lacking both flowers and ovaries, and flowering plants as typically having ovaries which develop into seed-containing fruits. The exposure of the seeds as in Blue Cohosh is an unusual condition for flowering plants. By bearing its seeds openly, Blue Cohosh is vulnerable to predators that would eat the seeds. The plant counteracts this vulnerability with the toxicity of its seeds, which are poisonous to many species including humans, under certain circumstances. (St. Olaf College Natural Lands)
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
A Monarch’s First Instar
Monarchs, like other butterflies and moths, undergo complete metamorphosis — they have an egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult stage. During a monarch’s larval stage it eats almost constantly, pausing only to shed its skin. The period between each shedding of the skin, or molt, is called an instar. Monarchs have five larval instars and during their larval stage grow to almost 2,000 times their original mass.
The first meal a monarch larva has is its eggshell and it quickly moves on to milkweed leaf hairs. Soon thereafter it begins to eat the leaf in earnest, often making an arc-shaped cutting.
During this first instar, which typically lasts one to three days, the larva’s appearance changes considerably. When it hatches, the monarch larva is pale green or grayish-white, shiny, and almost translucent. It has no stripes or other markings. It’s about 2 mm long, with front tentacles appearing as tiny little bumps. Its back tentacles are barely visible. By the end of the first instar it begins to have a pattern of black (or dark brown), yellow and white bands, and the 6mm-long body no longer looks transparent and shiny.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Gray Treefrogs’ Self-cleaning Toe Pads
Scientists have discovered that the angle of the toe pads and a secretion of mucus are involved in a treefrog’s ability to stick to wet, smooth leaves, rough, dry trees and other surfaces. They also allow the toes to “self-clean.”
To make their feet sticky treefrogs secrete mucus. They increase their adhesion by moving their feet against the surface of what they are clinging to in order to create friction. As a frog moves across a surface, its feet accumulate dirt, which impedes its ability to stick to the surface it’s walking on. Scientists have discovered that the mucus combined with this friction-creating movement not only allows the frog to adhere to the surface but simultaneously rids their feet of accumulated dirt and debris as they walk.
This remarkable adaptation may provide a design for self-cleaning sticky surfaces, which could be useful for a wide range of products, especially in contaminating environments such as medical bandages and long-lasting adhesives. (Thanks to Janice Perry for photo opportunity.)
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Ambush Bugs Ambushing
This Eight-spotted Forester Moth, Alypia octomaculata, didn’t have a chance once it decided to feed on the nectar of this Queen Anne’s Lace flowerhead. Hidden below the tiny white flowers waiting patiently for the next unsuspecting visitor was a Jagged Ambush Bug (Phymata sp.). The moth alighted, started drinking and suddenly the ambush bug grabbed the moth with its powerful front legs, injected an immobilizing and digestive fluid, and then drank the liquefying nutrients from the prey’s body. Unlike spiders, which have a pair of fangs, ambush bugs have their mouthparts arranged into a single straw-like beak (visible in photo). As is evident, ambush bugs often capture insects much bigger than themselves.
Naturally Curious is supported by donations. If you choose to contribute, you may go to http://www.naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com and click on the yellow “donate” button.
Naturally Curious with Mary Holland 
What Other Naturally Curious People Are Saying